Snippets of San Diego

hey hey, I got my memory card reader today. :p I think if I were to start this post with the intention of writing about what I did and saw the past few days, I would not be sleeping tonight. So I shall just post a few photos up and say a wee bit about them. Toying with the idea of going Hollywood this weekend. hehe we'll see we'll see.

080408 - Those white houses with the red roofs is where my house is. There's tennis courts, a pool and Jacuzzi!!! gosh I don't have access to such facilities back home do I? got to make good use of them.

100408 - Baked my 'special' easy chocolate cake for Irene's Birthday. My housemates loved it. The whole cake was finished by the next day.

I went to Balboa Park on the 13th of April, Sunday. It's the city park of San Diego boasting a collection of exciting museums, parks and the San Diego zoo. The area was the designated ground of at least 2 expositions in the 20th century that was to boost economic growth of the region.

130408 - The view of a canyon from the Rose and Cactus garden at Balboa Park. According to the park ranger, this is the natural landscape of San Diego. Sem-Arid

130408 - The Moretan Bay Fig. Look at the extend of the trunk

130408 - Pretty Roses for my mother :p

130408 - The Botanical Gardens with lotsa plants from all over the world in the greenhouse. An endeavour by Kate Sessions, a teacher turned gardener in the early days of BalBoa Park
130408 - Venus Fly trap I think; Beautiful flower, but deadly for bugs

130408 - San Diego was a 'new land' founded by Spanish explorers. Many of the buildings in Balboa Park are of Spanish-colonial style.

130408 - A wet Persian carpet?
130408 - The Spreckels Organ Pavillion; the BIGGEST outdoor organ in the world (I think). The organ was donated by the Spreckel brothers for the people of the world. So that the people of San Diego can enjoy music as people in Europe could easily have access to.
130408 - I stayed for a 1 hour concert there. In the hot sun. San Diego was sweltering on Sunday. 32 degrees celsius!!
130408 - the inside of the organ; 4500 odd pipes, with some as big as the ones below, and others the size of a pencil; it takes a total of 3 days for 3 people to tune the entire organ

130408 - there are the Snare drums and Chimes within the organ too

130408 - I went to the Model Railway Museum too. It was fascinating. All the displays were made by volunteers. They tried to re-create the landscape, railways, towns and villages back in the old days... The wild wild west :p In contination of the pipe organ theme, we have a miniature church by the railway with a pipe organ in it :p Remember, evertyhing in these pictures are little. The people in the pictures are the size of a nail (or even smaller).

130408 - The modellers do try to make this interesting by having scenarios like forklifts over-turning

130408 - The volunteers will also run trains within the models :> I tried to catch one in action.

130408 - Here's another one. This one carries lotsa goods like soya beans, petroleum, ply wood, etc.